


Tumblr prompts

by Yozora



Category: Heavy Rain
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-19
Updated: 2015-11-19
Packaged: 2018-05-02 10:05:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5244278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yozora/pseuds/Yozora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ficlets written for prompts received on Tumblr</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tumblr prompts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The prompt was, "Norman has one of his hallucinations in front of Blake".
> 
> ~~(You _almost_ have to squint to see the blayden in this, oops, but oh well, call it a character/relationship background study)~~

They’re holed up in Jayden’s broom closet of an office, going over details of a case when he first feels it; the tell-tale sign of his brain turning sluggish, fogging at the edges, making it harder to follow one thought to the next.

 _No_ , he thinks, rubbing inconspicuously at his temples, hoping that it’s just the lack of coffee. It’s been hours since his last cup, after all.

It’s when, about five minutes later, his fingers start gradually going numb, the tingling feeling crawling up his arms and making him drop the pen he’s holding, sending it clattering to the floor from his lax hand, that he has to admit to himself that is another kind of withdrawal completely.

 _Fuck. No, no, not here, not now_ , Jayden tells himself desperately. _Not anymore…_

Hoping against hope to still escape this situation with his pride and self-respect (let alone with what he has earned of Blake’s) intact, he pushes himself away from his desk and unsteadily to his feet.

“Jayden?” Blake asks, giving him one of those odd looks that somehow manages to be confused, irate and concerned at the same time.

“Blake. I have to… I need to…” Jayden’s not even sure what he’s saying, or trying to say anymore. The numbness has crept its way up his arms and neck, wrapping itself around his brain and making words feel awkward and complicated.

“The hell…? The fuck’s wrong with you? Are you…?” Through the fog gathering around the edges of his vision, Jayden is pretty sure he can tell Blake’s eyebrows have pulled together in one of his trademark _‘someone better tell me what the fuck is going on, **right now** ’_ frowns, but his voice sounds so far away it’s hard to be sure.

“I have to…” Jayden only manages again, his vision swimming dangerously. He has to be quick, if he wants to get anywhere before the numbness spreads over his whole body. Distantly he’s surprised his legs are still working.

 _Or not_ , as he takes one step in the direction of the door and the floor decides to take that exact moment to fall away right from under him, making his steps falter dangerously. He is vaguely aware of Blake’s hand shooting out towards him at the same time as Jayden himself reaches out frantically for the corner of his desk to support himself against it, only to be greeted with empty air, filled with a gust of autumn wind, followed by a floor of leaves crunching and rustling under his weight, colours of faded yellow and orange and red.

“ _Fuck_ ”, he mutters under his breath, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes that he _knows_ must be red-rimmed and blood-shot by now. _Of all the places,_ he curses mentally. _Of all the people…_ Despite everything, despite what they’ve been through together and where they are now, Blake is still the last person Jayden wants to show this side of himself to.

Another gust of wind blows past him, leaves swirling around him with it. The wind is cool against his skin, gusty but not yet exactly cold or biting, but neither is it the gentle breeze he always associated with the environment, before. He knows what it means.

 _Get out of here. Snap out of it. Somehow. Do_ something _!_

But it’s always been easier said than done, except for the one alternative – that isn’t an alternative anymore, Jayden reminds himself sternly.

Reluctantly, he opens his eyes, even the faded light of the forest stinging them for a moment. He isn’t sure what exactly he expected to see, but the empty space, devoid of even what few office furniture he had, with its muted colours and gloomy sky still fills him with dread.

He knows what those things mean, too.

“Blake?” Jayden calls, standing up on shaky legs and turning in a slow circle to inspect his surroundings. He’s not sure what to expect in this regard, either, but the older lieutenant is nowhere to be seen. It does make him wonder, briefly, what all of this, what he’s doing, must look like from Blake’s perspective, but he shies away from the thought almost immediately. It’s too humiliating.

“Blake?” he calls again anyway, although he is unsure why. Perhaps, despite everything, a familiar face would still be better than—

The familiar face he _does_ see when he turns back around makes his blood run icy cold.

_“Hello, sir.”_

 

Blake’s first clue that something might up is when Jayden starts rubbing at his temples where he thinks Blake doesn’t notice, eyes squinting like he’s in pain. Of course, it _could_ just be a caffeine headache, but when is anything ever that simple with Jayden? Still, he ignores it, because if Jayden is electing to be a stubborn idiot about it, then fuck, so can he.

His second clue is when a few minutes later Jayden fumbles his pen out of the blue, hand twitching like he suddenly has no idea how to control the muscles there.

Blake’s third, deciding clue is the way Jayden suddenly barges to his feet from the chair when it’s painfully obvious that standing is the last thing the agent’s feet want to be doing.

“Jayden?” he asks, irritation seeping into his voice despite himself. He’s known that something’s going on with Jayden for a while now, ever since the original Origami Killer case, has been witness to some pretty hard-to-explain erratic behaviour in spite of the agent’s best attempts to hide it from him, though never up close like this.

Jayden mumbles something that barely makes any sense, accent thick and slurred, and Blake has a split-second to take in his ashen skin and suddenly blood-shot eyes, the pupils blown to hell, wondering if maybe the bastard is actually having a fucking stroke, before Jayden, apparently trying to make it for the door, suddenly just… _collapses_.

“Holy fuck”, Blake blurts out, reaching out to grab a hold of Jayden, only to miss by mere inches, the agent narrowly missing his own desk and sprawling on the ground.

“Jayden?” Blake calls to his partner, an actual flicker of worry in his tone now, but the agent ignores him, only sitting up enough to cover his eyes with his hands and mutter something unintelligible.

“Jayden?” Blake asks again, a little more forcefully now. Still, there is no response, Jayden just sitting on the floor, curled in on himself, skin still as ashen as it was before, if not slightly more clammy now.

“Hey, Norman!” Blake barks, moving closer at the same time as Jayden finally pulls his hands away from his face and opens his eyes, blinking as if the office light hurts them. But something is off…

“Blake?” the agent calls, eyes scanning the room as he somehow manages to stand himself up, but clearly unseeing. He looks right at Blake, looks right _through_ him, but the lieutenant sees no recognition in the still-widened, frantic eyes.

_What the fuck is going on…?_

“Blake?” Jayden calls again, this time noticeably more unsure as he starts to turn away from Blake in slow circle, like you would when examining your surroundings in a new, unfamiliar location. His eyes are still darting more-or-less actively around the room, so Blake feels he can be fairly sure the agents hasn’t just gone blind. Something else is going here, but hell if he can figure out what.

_The fuck are you on, Jayden?_

The thought is out before Blake can properly figure out where he even got that from, but before he can process it any further, Jayden makes a shocked, almost _frightened_ sound as his whole body goes stock-still, except for his rapid breathing.

“Norm?” Blake asks almost at the same times as Jayden says “No, I don’t want to talk to you” and fuck if he’s ever heard to agent to sound _like that_.

 

_“And yet here you are, sir.”_

Jayden eyes the man in the red suit jacket, heart beating wildly in his throat. Almost automatically his hand flies up to his face to reach for the glasses he _knows_ aren’t there. “Not because I want to be, trust me.”

_“Did I not warn you of how dangerous it was to over-indulge?”_

“I’m not!”

 _“Did I not warn you of how it might_ kill _you, sir?”_

“I’m not using it anymore! You know I’m not!” He hates the way his voice, raising and turning slightly shrill despite his best efforts, echoes in the forest in way that he’s one hundred percent sure it’s not supposed to.

 _“And yet here you are”_ , the man in the red jacket echoes himself, and the ominous tone, almost like a threat, sends chills up Jayden’s spine.

“No”, he says, voice as firm as he can make it, even as the wind, strong and cold now, picks up around him and the sky turns dark over their heads. “No”, he repeats, and even though he doesn’t know why he’s doing it or what he thinks it will accomplish, he turns around and starts to half-walk, half-run—

 

—only to bump straight into Blake’s chest.

“…Blake?” Jayden stammers intelligently, eyes blinking rapidly as the room morphs back into his dusty, grey office so fast it makes his head spin. Belatedly he becomes aware of Blake’s hands grasped around his shoulders, the hold almost hard enough to hurt as the lieutenant keeps him pinned against his chest.

“Jayden, _what the fuck?_ ” Blake asks, and there’s such a wide variety of emotions on his face that Jayden can’t even begin to process them all in his current state.

“Just…just give me second” is Jayden’s weary reply, his body sagging with tiredness until his forehead is resting against Blake’s shoulder. He can feel more than see the deep frown on his partner’s face.

“The fuck are you not telling me, Norman?”

Jayden takes a reluctant breath, eyes closed against the sudden feeling of vertigo sweeping over him, before sighing out into the fabric of Blake’s shirt. “Blake, I’m…” he starts, pausing, searching for words, before sighing again, finishing lamely, “My head hurts.” As if that explained anything.

Blake snorts a sudden, surprised laugh, his shoulders rocking with the motion. “Yeah, no shit.”

 

After a moment, when it becomes apparent no other explanation is forthcoming, Blake releases his hand on Jayden shoulder, pulling back enough to grasp the agent’s chin to turn his face up. The skin is still covered in a fine sheen of sweat, though Blake’s pleased to note the return of at least some colour the agent’s cheeks. The blood-shot look of his eyes is nearly gone, too, having been replaced with a simple tired edge.

“You look like hell”, he declares anyway.

It’s Jayden’s turn to snort a tired chuckle, rolling his eyes. “Thanks.”

“Come on, you asshole. Let’s get you home to sleep whatever the hell this is off”, Blake says, tossing his head towards the door in a _‘let’s go’_ gesture and releasing Jayden’s chin to pull him along by the elbow.

Jayden has a moment feel relieved, before Blake adds with a pointedly raised eyebrow, “And don’t think for a fucking moment you’re off the hook here, _Norman_. I’m gonna get the truth out of you, whether you like it or not.”

 

Jayden doesn’t doubt it for a moment.


End file.
